Facebook After Death: New Feature Lets You "Will" Your Page

Facebook After Death: New Feature Lets You “Will” Your Page

Forget about the will. When it comes to death and the digital world – who are you leaving your Facebook page to?

Facebook recently added a legacy feature, allowing you to “will” your Facebook page to a legacy contact who’ll have permission to manage your page, make changes and post after you pass away. Like other legal death planning, this must be arranged before you die. Facebook accounts without a beneficiary can’t be altered or changed in any way, but will still memorialize the page by keeping it (minus a few features) available for viewing and interacting after you’re gone.

Features of a Facebook legacy page will allow friends to share pictures and memories on the late-you’s wall. In addition, the word “remembering” will be placed next to your name and loved ones won’t have to worry about your name popping up in people you may know or other public spaces – including in curated yearly reviews, which made headlines last year for including pictures of deceased Facebook users.

Don’t want such an active post-you Facebook legacy page? You can arrange to have the page permanently deleted after death. Family and friends can request to have a deceased loved one’s page memorialized here.

This new Facebook legacy feature is a valid response to a growing digital cemetery on Facebook and comments in a larger way on social media’s role in the grieving process, while speaking to just how much of our lives have been transferred online.